Art Amsterdam
11.05.2011 — 15.05.2011
Simon Gush
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Freefall modified ceiling fans, 2005. In March 2005, Gush was invited to make a site-specific work for Preview, an exhibition that took place at the Point Blank Gallery at the historical Drill Hall in inner city Johannesburg, South Africa. His work comprised of four ceiling fans installed within the empty gallery. The fans were mounted very low so that the blades of the fans rotated just above the heads of the audience. The proximity to the visitors turned the fans into potentially dangerous objects. Since 1904, the Drill Hall had been a military base. After the precinct burned down it was subsequently renovated as a multi-use heritage site housing different community based organisations as well as the Rand Light Infantry (the on site gallery is now run by a non-profit collective, the Joubert Park Project). Simon Gushs’ interest in the site stemmed from the fact that during Apartheid the gallery space was used as administration offices, mainly for the conscription campaign of the Defence Force.